ReportWire

Tag: Energy industry

  • In Norway, Russian man stopped with drones

    In Norway, Russian man stopped with drones

    [ad_1]

    COPENHAGEN, Denmark — A 50-year-old Russian man has been detained in Arctic Norway with two drones and is suspected of flying the unmanned aerial vehicles somewhere in the country.

    Numerous drone sightings have been reported near Norwegian offshore oil and gas platforms in recent weeks.

    The Russian citizen, who was not identified, was detained on Tuesday.

    Norwegian media reported that customs officers found two drones and several electronic storage devices in his luggage during a routine check at the Storskog border crossing, the sole crossing point between NATO-member Norway and Russia. Norway’s Arctic border with Russia is 198 kilometers (123 miles) long.

    He is suspected of breaching sanctions which came into force after Russia went to war against Ukraine, prosecutor Anja Mikkelsen Indbjør told Norwegian broadcaster NRK. Under Norwegian law, it is prohibited for aircraft operated by Russian companies or citizens “to land on, take off from or fly over Norwegian territory.” Norway is not a member of the European Union but mirrors its moves.

    The VG newspaper said that a local court on Friday ordered the man held for two weeks in custody. The man told the Indre and Oestre Finnmark District Court that he had been in Norway since August and had flown drones throughout the country, VG said. The seized material included 4 terabytes of stored images and files, with parts of them encrypted.

    The man’s defense lawyer, Jens Bernhard Herstad, told Norwegian daily Dagbladet that his client has acknowledged flying the drones but has declined to say what he was doing in Norway.

    Norwegian Justice Minister Emilie Enger Mehl said it was “too early to draw conclusions.”

    “It is known that we have an intelligence threat against us which has been reinforced by what is happening in Europe,” Enger Mehl told NRK.

    There is heightened security around key energy, internet and power infrastructure following last month’s underwater explosions that ruptured two natural gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea that were built to deliver Russian gas to Germany.

    The blasts and ruptures in the Baltic Sea happened in international waters off both Sweden and Denmark but within the countries’ exclusive economic zone. The damaged Nord Stream pipelines discharged huge amounts of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, into the air.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Turkey, Russia to study Putin’s gas hub proposal

    Turkey, Russia to study Putin’s gas hub proposal

    [ad_1]

    ANKARA, Turkey — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says Turkey and Russia have instructed their respective energy authorities to immediately begin technical studies on a Russian proposal that would turn Turkey into a gas hub for Europe.

    Russian President Vladimir Putin has floated the idea of exporting more gas through the Turk Stream gas pipeline running beneath the Black Sea to Turkey after gas deliveries to Germany through the Baltic Sea’s Nord Stream pipeline were halted.

    Erdogan said Russian and Turkish energy authorities would work together to designate the best location for a gas distribution center, adding that Turkey’s Thrace region, bordering Greece and Bulgaria appeared to be the best spot.

    “Together with Mr. Putin, we have instructed our Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources and the relevant institution on the Russian side to work together,” Erdogan said. “They will conduct this study. Wherever the most appropriate place is, we will hopefully establish this distribution center there.”

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Putin tempts Turkey, suggests making it Europe’s new gas hub

    Putin tempts Turkey, suggests making it Europe’s new gas hub

    [ad_1]

    ANKARA, Turkey — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday doubled down on his proposal to turn Turkey into a gas hub for Europe after deliveries to Germany through the Baltic Sea’s Nord Stream pipeline were halted.

    Putin floated the idea of exporting more gas through the Turk Stream gas pipeline running beneath the Black Sea to Turkey as he met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the sidelines of a regional summit in Kazakhstan.

    It’s the second unlikely energy proposal that Putin has pitched in as many days, with European leaders calling Russia’s cuts in natural gas a political bid to divide them over their support for Ukraine. It’s created an energy crisis heading into winter that has fueled inflation, forced some industries to cut production and sent utility bills soaring.

    “This is just another attempt by Russia to use gas as a geo-strategic tool to weaken EU and NATO countries,” said Simone Tagliapietra, an energy policy expert at the Bruegel think tank in Brussels.

    Russia was “tempting Turkey to becoming an energy hub — a long lasting strategic aim of the country — while trying to create new divisions among European countries,” the analyst said, adding that Putin’s strategy was not likely to succeed.

    A day earlier, Germany rejected Putin’s proposal to step up gas flows to Europe via a link of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline under the Baltic Sea – a pipeline that has never been operational. Moscow has cut off the parallel Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline over what it claimed were technical problems.

    The Russian leader first voiced the proposal on Wednesday, saying that Russia could increase the volume of its gas exports to Turkey through the Black Sea pipeline.

    “We could … make the main routes for the supply of our fuel, our natural gas to Europe through Turkey, creating in Turkey the largest gas hub for Europe — if, of course, our partners are interested in it,” Putin told a Moscow energy forum.

    On Thursday, he said the hub could help regulate “exorbitant” prices. “We could easily regulate (prices) at a normal market level, without any political overtones,” Putin said.

    “Putin is in a desperate situation. Nord Stream 1 and 2 are not operational and are unlikely to be operational for a long while,” said Mehmet Ogutcu, chairman of the London Energy Club. “Europe has made clear that it will not enter an engagement (with Russia) as long as the war in Ukraine continues.”

    “Turkey remains Putin’s only option,” he said.

    Ogutcu said Turkey was likely to tread carefully, wary of further increasing its dependence on Russia.

    “There is a delicate balancing act (by Turkey). If the balance tilts too much toward Russia this will damage (Ankara’s) relations with the West,” Ogutcu said.

    Erdogan did not comment publicly on the proposal but Putin’s spokesman, Dimitry Peskov said Turkey has reacted positively to the idea. Officials from Erdogan’s office could not immediately be reached for comment.

    Turkey’s state-run news agency however, quoted Turkish Energy Minister Fatih Donmez as saying on Wednesday that it was “too early to assess” the proposal.

    “Technically it is possible,” Anadolu Agency quoted Donmez as telling reporters at the same Moscow energy forum. “For such international projects, technical, commercial and legal evaluation and feasibility studies need to be conducted.”

    NATO-member Turkey, which is depending on Russian for its energy needs and tourism, has criticized Moscow’s actions in Ukraine but has not joined U.S. and European sanctions against Russia. It has maintained its close ties with both Moscow and Kyiv and positioning itself as a mediator between the two. Ankara recently helped broker key deals that allowed Ukrainian to resume grain exports and led to a prisoner swap between Ukraine and Russia.

    Although Russia is still conveying gas to Europe via Ukraine, the amount has plummeted drastically with the two Baltic pipelines out of commission.

    The Nord Stream 2 pipeline never came on stream because Germany blocked its operation just before Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24.

    —-

    Litvinova reported from Tallinn, Estonia. David McHugh contributed from Frankfurt.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Live Updates: Russia-Ukraine-War

    Live Updates: Russia-Ukraine-War

    [ad_1]

    MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday that Moscow is ready to resume gas supplies to Europe via a link of Germany-bound Nord Stream 2 pipeline under the Baltic Sea which has never been in use.

    The Nord Stream 2 pipeline has never brought natural gas to Europe because Germany prevented the flows from ever starting just before Russia invaded Ukraine.

    Russia has cut off the parallel Nord Stream 1 pipeline, which has been at the center of an energy standoff with Europe. Russia has blamed technical problems for the stoppage, but European leaders call it an attempt to divide them over their support for Ukraine.

    Speaking at a Moscow energy forum, Putin again claimed Wednesday that the U.S. was likely behind the explosions that ripped through both links of the Nord Stream 1 pipeline and one of the two links of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, causing a massive gas leak and taking them out of service.

    The U.S. has previously rejected similar allegations by Putin.

    ———

    KEY DEVELOPMENTS:

    — Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant loses external power

    — Belarus army would likely have little impact in Ukraine war

    — Bodies exhumed from mass grave in Ukraine’s liberated Lyman

    — EU countries turn to Africa in bid to replace Russian gas

    — Leak detected in pipeline that brings crude oil to Germany

    — Worried UN meets on Ukraine hours after Russian strikes

    — Follow all AP stories on the war in Ukraine at https:/ /apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

    ———

    OTHER DEVELOPMENTS:

    KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian authorities say a Russian attack on a market in the eastern Donetsk region has killed seven people and wounded eight.

    The deputy head of the Ukraine president’s office says the attack happened early Wednesday morning in Avdiivka.

    “The Russian military needs more blood, more death and more destruction,” Kyrylo Tymoshenko said on Telegram. “This is a hunt for the lives of peaceful citizens.”

    Photos attached to the post showed dead people lying in line near one of kiosks that had potatoes and bread on the counter.

    ———

    KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine government’s energy minister says Russian attacks in the past two days have damaged about one third of the country’s energy infrastructure.

    “For the first time since the start of the war, Russia is targeting energy infrastructure,” German Galushchenko said on Wednesday. He says this is because Ukraine is exporting energy to Europe.

    ———

    KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s presidential office says Russian shelling in the past 24 hours has affected eight regions in the southeast, while strikes on central and western areas have eased for the moment.

    Russian forces used drones, heavy artillery and missiles, according to the presidential office’s Wednesday morning update.

    Three people have been rescued alive from the rubble in Zaporizhzhia after over a dozen missiles rained on the city, the report said. A six-year-old girl and two more people were wounded in the shelling of Nikopol, where the attacks damaged some three dozen residential buildings, private houses, kindergartens, a school, two plants and several shops, the report added.

    Ukrainian forces say they shot down nine Iranian Shahed-136 drones and destroyed eight Kalibr cruise missiles near Mykolaiv, leaving the southern city without power.

    “Russian shelling intensifies and subsides, but doesn’t stop, not for a day the city lives in tension, and the Russians’ main goal appears to be keeping us in fear,” Mykolaiv regional governor Vitali Kim said.

    ———

    KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian officials and military analysts say Kyiv’s counteroffensive in the occupied regions in the south and east of the country has slowed down significantly despite Ukraine retaking five towns and villages in the Kherson area.

    Russian troops have been re-enforcing the front lines and regrouping following Ukrainian successes, which has forced the Ukrainian forces to ease their advances.

    Regional administrator in the eastern Luhansk region says Russian forces there have been building a multi-layered defense line and mining the front line’s first section.

    Serhiy Haidai says people in the Luhansk region are moving from the Russia-occupied cities to villages, where they have been settling down in empty houses to “spend the winter in warm.”

    Luhansk is among the four region that Russia unlawfully annexed following referendums dismissed as sham by both Ukraine and the West.

    “In the south, the Ukrainian army is slowing down the pace of the counteroffensive, because the Russians managed to regroup and put forward paratrooper units, and unexpected issues arose,” Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov told The Associated Press.

    ———

    MOSCOW — The Kremlin says there are no plans for Russian President Vladimir Putin to meet with U.S. President Joe Biden during a Group of 20 summit in Indonesia next month.

    Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Wednesday said “neither the Russian, nor American side put forward any initiatives about organizing bilateral contacts” during the summit in Bali.

    Asked about Biden’s comments in an interview with CNN in which he warned that the use of nuclear weapons against Ukraine would lead to a “horrible outcome,” Peskov said the remarks were part of “harmful and provocative” Western nuclear rhetoric.

    Putin has said he wouldn’t hesitate to use “all means available” to protect Russian territory in a clear reference to Russian nuclear arsenals, a statement that was broadly seen as an attempt to force Ukraine to halt its offensive to reclaim control of the four regions that were illegally absorbed by Russia.

    ———

    BRUSSELS — A Belarus opposition leader says Russia is now de facto occupying her country by deploying its troops there and using authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko as its puppet.

    Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya urged more support from EU leaders during a two-day visit to European Union headquarters in Brussels. She says “we face an enemy who denies the very existence of our country as a free and independent nation.”

    The exiled opposition leader fears that Lukashenko could force the Belarus army to join Russian forces in Moscow’s war against Ukraine. Russia has already used Belarus as a staging ground to send troops and missiles into Ukraine earlier in the war.

    Tsikhanouskaya adds the situation has become “dramatic” in Belarus, which has become totally subservient to the wishes of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Putin and Lukasenko, she says, have “tried to increase and legalize the constant deployment of Russian troops on Belarus territory.”

    “It’s an occupation,” adds Tsikhanouskaya. “Our position is clear, Belarus must officially withdraw from participation in Russian war, and the Russian soldiers must leave Belarus unconditionally.”

    Tsikhanouskaya fled to Lithuania after Lukashenko claimed victory in disputed August 2020 elections that many thought she won.

    ———

    KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine Southern Operational Command says its forces have recaptured five settlements in the Kherson region.

    The villages of Novovasylivka, Novohryhorivka, Nova Kamianka, Tryfonivka and Chervone in the Beryslav district were retaken as of Oct. 11, according to the speaker of the southern command Vladislav Nazarov.

    The settlements are in one of the four regions recently illegally annexed by Russia.

    ———

    MOSCOW — Russia’s top KGB successor agency said Wednesday that it has arrested eight people on charges of involvement in the attack on the bridge linking Russia to Crimea.

    The Federal Security Service (FSB) said it arrested five Russians and three citizens of Ukraine and Armenia on charges of involvement in Saturday’s attack on the bridge.

    A truck loaded with explosives blew up while driving across the bridge, killing four and causing two sections of one of the two automobile links to collapse.

    The FSB charged that the arrested suspects were working on orders of Ukraine’s military intelligence to secretly move the explosives into Russia and forge the accompanying documents.

    It said the explosives were moved by sea from the Ukrainian port of Odesa to Bulgaria before being shipped to Georgia, driven to Armenia and then back to Georgia before being transported to Russia in a complex scheme to secretly deliver them to the target.

    Russian President Vladimir Putin denounced the attack on the bridge as an “act of terrorism” and responded by ordering a barrage of missile strikes on Ukraine.

    Ukrainian officials have lauded the explosion on the bridge, but stopped short of directly claiming responsibility for it.

    ———

    KYIV, Ukraine — A Ukrainian official says a Russian attack blew up windows and doors on residential buildings in the southern city of Zaporizhzhia.

    City council Secretary Anatoliy Kurtev on Wednesday warned the residents of possible follow-up attacks. There were no reports of injuries from the initial shelling.

    Zaporizhzhia, which sits fairly near the front line, has been repeatedly struck with often deadly attacks in recent weeks. It is part of a larger region, including Europe’s largest nuclear power plant now in Russian control, that Moscow has said it has annexed in violation of international law. The city itself remains in Ukrainian hands.

    Another powerful blast struck Melitopol, which is in the same region, sending a car flying into the air, said mayor Ivan Fedorov. There was no word on casualties. Also Wednesday, air raid sirens sounded in the capital Kyiv.

    ———

    WARSAW, Poland — A leak has been detected in an underground oil pipeline in Poland which is the main route through which Russian crude oil reaches Germany.

    Polish operator, PERN, on Wednesday said it detected a leak in the Druzhba pipeline, which originates in Russia, on Tuesday evening about 70 kilometers (45 miles) form the the central Polish city of Plock. It said the cause of the leak wasn’t known.

    The Druzhba pipeline, which in Russian means “Friendship,” is one of the world’s longest oil pipelines, and after leaving Russia it branches out to bring crude to points including Belarus, Ukraine, Poland, Hungary, Austria and Germany.

    The incident follows leaks late last month in the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines running along the Baltic seabed.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • EU countries turn to Africa in bid to replace Russian gas

    EU countries turn to Africa in bid to replace Russian gas

    [ad_1]

    DAKAR, Senegal — A new liquefied natural gas project off Africa‘s western coast may only be 80% complete, but already the prospect of a new energy supplier has drawn visits from the leaders of Poland and Germany.

    The initial field near Senegal and Mauritania’s coastlines is expected to contain about 15 trillion cubic feet (425 billion cubic meters) of gas, five times more than what gas-dependent Germany used in all of 2019. But production isn’t expected to start until the end of next year.

    That won’t help solve Europe’s energy crisis triggered by Russia’s war in Ukraine. Still, Gordon Birrell, an executive for project co-developer BP, says the development “could not be more timely” as Europe seeks to reduce its reliance on Russian natural gas to power factories, generate electricity and heat homes.

    “Current world events are demonstrating the vital role that (liquid gas) can play in underpinning the energy security of nations and regions,” he told an energy industry meeting in West Africa last month.

    While Africa’s natural gas reserves are vast and North African countries like Algeria have pipelines already linked to Europe, a lack of infrastructure and security challenges have long stymied producers in other parts of the continent from scaling up exports. Already-established African producers are cutting deals or reducing energy use so they have more to sell to boost their finances, but some leaders warn that hundreds of millions of Africans lack electricity and supplies are needed at home.

    Nigeria has Africa’s largest natural gas reserves, said Horatius Egua, a spokesman for the petroleum minister, though it accounts for only 14% of the European Union’s imports of liquefied natural gas, or LNG, that comes by ship. Projects face the risk of energy thefts and high costs. Other promising countries like Mozambique have discovered large gas reserves only to see projects delayed by violence from Islamic militants.

    Europe has been scrambling to secure alternative sources as Moscow has reduced natural gas flows to EU countries, triggering soaring energy prices and growing expectations of a recession. The 27-nation EU, whose energy ministers are meeting this week to discuss a gas price cap, is bracing for the possibility of a complete Russian cutoff but has still managed to fill gas reserves to 90%.

    European leaders have flocked to countries like Norway, Qatar, Azerbaijan and especially those in North Africa, where Algeria has a pipeline running to Italy and another to Spain.

    Italy signed a $4 billion gas deal with Algeria in July, a month after Egypt reached an agreement with the European Union and Israel to boost sales of LNG. Angola also has signed a gas deal with Italy.

    While an earlier agreement allowed Italy’s biggest energy company to start production at two Algerian gas fields this week, it was wasn’t clear when flows would start from the July deal because it lacked specifics, analysts said.

    African leaders like Senegalese President Macky Sall want their countries to cash in on these projects even as they’re being dissuaded from pursuing fossil fuels. They don’t want to export it all either — an estimated 600 million Africans lack access to electricity.

    “It is legitimate, fair and equitable that Africa, the continent that pollutes the least and lags furthest behind in the industrialization process should exploit its available resources to provide basic energy, improve the competitiveness of its economy and achieve universal access to electricity,” Sall told the U.N. General Assembly last month.

    Algeria is a major supplier — it and Egypt accounted for 60% of the natural gas production in Africa in 2020 — but it can’t offset Russian gas to Europe at this stage, said Mahfoud Kaoubi, professor of economics and specialist in energy issues at the University of Algiers.

    “Russia has an annual production of 270 billion cubic meters — it’s huge,” Kaoubi said. “Algeria is 120 billion cubic meters, of which 70.50% is intended for consumption on the internal market.”

    This year, Algeria is forecast to have piped exports of 31.8 billion cubic meters, according to Tom Purdie, a Europe, Middle East and Africa gas analyst with S&P Global Commodity Insights.

    “The key concern here surrounds the level of production step-up that can be achieved, and the impact domestic demand could have” given how much gas Algeria uses at home, Purdie said.

    Cash-strapped Egypt also is looking to export more natural gas to Europe, even regulating air conditioning in shopping malls and lights on streets to save energy and sell it instead.

    Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly says Egypt hopes to bring in an additional $450 million a month in foreign currency by rerouting 15% of its domestic gas usage for export, state media reported.

    More than 60% of Egypt’s natural gas consumption still is used by power stations to keep the country running. Most of its LNG goes to Asian markets.

    A new, three-party deal will see Israel send more gas to Europe via Egypt, which has facilities to liquefy it for export by sea. The EU says it will help the two countries increase gas production and exploration.

    In Nigeria, ambitious plans have yet to yield results despite years of planning. The country exported less than 1% of its vast natural gas reserves last year.

    A proposed 4,400-kilometer-long (2,734-mile-long) pipeline that would take Nigerian gas to Algeria through Niger has been stalled since 2009, mainly because of its estimated cost of $13 billion.

    Many fear that even if completed, the Trans-Sahara Gas Pipeline would face security risks like Nigeria’s oil pipelines, which have come under frequent attacks from militants and vandals.

    The same challenges would hinder increased gas exports to Europe, said Olufola Wusu, a Lagos-based oil and gas expert.

    “If you look at the realities on ground — issues that have to do with crude oil theft — and others begin to question our ability to supply gas to Europe,” he said.

    Wusu urged pursuing LNG, calling it the “most profitable” gas strategy so far.

    Even that isn’t without issues: In July, the head of Nigeria LNG Limited, the country’s largest natural gas firm, said its plant was producing at just 68% of capacity, mainly because its operations and earnings have been stifled by oil theft.

    In the south, Mozambique is slated to become a major exporter of LNG after significant deposits were found along its Indian Ocean coast in 2010. France’s TotalEnergies invested $20 billion and started work to extract gas that would be liquefied in a plant it was building in Palma, in the northern Cabo Delgado province.

    But Islamic extremist violence forced TotalEnergies to indefinitely scupper the project last year. Mozambican officials have pledged to secure the Palma area to allow work to resume.

    Italian firm Eni, meanwhile, pressed ahead with its plan to pump and liquefy some of its gas deposits discovered in Mozambique in 2011 and 2014. Eni established a platform in the Indian Ocean 50 miles (80 kilometers) offshore, away from the violence in Cabo Delgado.

    It’s the first floating LNG facility in the deep waters off Africa, Eni says, with gas liquefaction capacity of 3.4 million tons per year.

    The platform liquefied its first gas on Oct. 2, according to Africa Energy, and the first shipment is expected to depart for Europe in mid-October.

    ———

    Chinedu Asadu in Abuja, Nigeria; Aya Batrawy in Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Samy Magdy in Cairo; Andrew Meldrum in Johannesburg; and Colleen Barry in Milan contributed to this report.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Russia strikes Kyiv, multiple Ukrainian cities; many dead

    Russia strikes Kyiv, multiple Ukrainian cities; many dead

    [ad_1]

    KYIV, Ukraine — Russia unleashed a lethal barrage of strikes against multiple Ukrainian cities Monday, smashing civilian targets including downtown Kyiv where at least eight people were killed.

    The intense, hours-long attack marked a sudden military escalation by Moscow. It came a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin called a Saturday explosion on the huge bridge connecting Russia to its annexed territory of Crimea a “terrorist act” masterminded by Ukrainian special services.

    At least eight people were killed and 24 were injured in just one of the Kyiv strikes, according to preliminary information, said Rostyslav Smirnov, an adviser to the Ukrainian ministry of internal affairs.

    The sustained barrage on major cities hit residential areas and critical infrastructure facilities alike, portending a major surge in the war amid a successful Ukrainian counteroffensive in recent weeks. It came a few hours before Putin was due to hold a meeting with his security council, as Moscow’s war in Ukraine approaches its eight-month milestone and the Kremlin reels from humiliating battlefield setbacks in areas it is trying to annex.

    Blasts struck in the capital’s Shevchenko district, a large area in the center of Kyiv that includes the historic old town as well as several government offices, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.

    Some of the strikes hit near the government quarter in the symbolic heart of the capital, where Parliament and other major landmarks are located. A glass tower housing offices was significantly damaged, most of its blue-tinted windows blown out.

    Residents were seen on the streets with blood on their clothes and hands. A young man wearing a blue jacket sat on the ground as a medic wrapped a bandage around his head. A woman with bandages wrapped around her head had blood all over the front of her blouse. Several cars were also damaged or completely destroyed. Air raid sirens sounded repeatedly across the country and in Kyiv.

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russian forces launched dozens of missiles and Iranian-built drones against Ukraine.

    The General Staff of the Ukraine Armed Forces said 75 missiles were fired against Ukrainian targets, with 41 of them neutralized by air defenses.

    The targets were civilian areas and energy facilities in 10 cities, Zelenskyy said in a video address. “(The Russians) chose such a time and such targets on purpose to inflict the most damage,” Zelenskyy said.

    The morning strikes sent Kyiv residents back into bomb shelters for the first time in months. The city’s subway system stopped train services and made the stations available once more as bomb shelters.

    While air raid sirens have continued throughout the war in Ukraine’s major cities across the country, in Kyiv and other areas where there have been months of calm many Ukrainians had begun to ignore their warnings and go about their normal business.

    That changed on Monday morning. The attacks arrived in Kyiv at the start of the morning rush hour, when commuter traffic was beginning to pick up. At least one of the vehicles struck near the Kyiv National University appeared to be a commuter minibus, known as a “marshrutka,” and a popular albeit often crowded alternative to the city’s bus and metro routes.

    Nearby, at least one strike landed in the popular Shevchenko Park, leaving a large hole near a children’s playground.

    Lesia Vasylenko, a member of Ukraine’s parliament, posted a photo on Twitter showing that at least one explosion occurred near the main building of the Kyiv National University in central Kyiv.

    Elsewhere, Russia targeted civilian areas and energy infrastructure as air raid sirens sounded in every region of Ukraine, except Russia-annexed Crimea, for four straight hours.

    Associated Press journalists in Dnipro city saw the bodies of multiple people killed at an industrial site on the city’s outskirts. Windows in the area had been blown out and glass littered the street. A telecommunications building was hit.

    Ukrainian media also reported explosions in a number of other locations, including the western city of Lviv that has been a refuge for many people fleeing the fighting in the east, as well as in Kharkiv, Ternopil, Khmelnytskyi, Zhytomyr and Kropyvnytskyi.

    Kharkiv was hit three times, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said. The strikes knocked out the electricity and water supply. Energy infrastructure was also hit in Lviv, Regional Governor Maksym Kozytskyi said.

    Three cruise missiles launched against Ukraine from Russian ships in the Black Sea crossed Moldova’s airspace, the country’s Foreign Affairs Minister Nicu Popescu complained.

    A day earlier, Putin had called the attack on the Kerch Bridge to Crimea a terrorist act carried out by Ukrainian special services. In a meeting Sunday with the chairman of Russia’s Investigative Committee, Putin said “there’s no doubt it was a terrorist act directed at the destruction of critically important civilian infrastructure.”

    The Kerch Bridge is important to Russia strategically, as a military supply line to its forces in Ukraine, and symbolically, as an emblem of its claims on Crimea. No one has claimed responsibility for damaging the 12-mile (19-kilometer) -long bridge, the longest in Europe.

    Amid the onslaught, Zelenskyy said on his Telegram account that Russia is “trying to destroy us and wipe us off the face of the earth.”

    The attacks appeared set to bring a fresh bout of international condemnation for Russia.

    German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s spokesman, Steffen Hebestreit, said the Group of Seven industrial powers will hold a videoconference Tuesday on the situation which Zelenskyy will address. Germany currently chairs the G-7.

    Ukrainian Foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba broke off his Africa tour and headed back to Ukraine, saying on Twitter the attacks represented “terror on peaceful Ukrainian cities.”

    Some feared Monday’s attacks may just be the first salvo in a renewed Russian offensive. Ukraine’s Ministry of Education announced that all schools in Ukraine must switch to online classes at least until the end of this week.

    ———

    Sabra Ayres in Kyiv, Vasilisa Stepanenko in Kharkiv, and Justin Spike and Yesica Fisch in Dnipro contributed to this story.

    ———

    Follow the AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Multiple explosions rock eastern Ukraine city of Kharkiv

    Multiple explosions rock eastern Ukraine city of Kharkiv

    [ad_1]

    KYIV, Ukraine — A series of explosions rocked the eastern Ukraine city of Kharkiv early Saturday, sending towering plumes of illuminated smoke in the sky and triggering a series of secondary explosions.

    The blasts came as Russia concentrated attacks Friday in its increasingly troubled invasion of Ukraine on areas it illegally annexed, while the death toll from earlier missile strikes on apartment buildings in the southern city of Zaporizhzhia rose to 14.

    It was not immediately clear what caused the Kharkiv blasts or what was hit.

    THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

    KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia concentrated attacks Friday in its increasingly troubled invasion of Ukraine on areas it illegally annexed as the death toll from earlier missile strikes on apartment buildings in the southern city of Zaporizhzhia rose to 14.

    In a rebuke to Russian President Vladimir Putin and his conduct of Europe’s worst armed conflict since World War II, the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to human rights organizations in his country and Ukraine, and to an activist jailed in Russia’s ally Belarus.

    Berit Reiss-Andersen, the committee’s chair, said the honor went to “three outstanding champions of human rights, democracy and peaceful coexistence.”

    Putin this week illegally claimed four regions of Ukraine as Russian territory, including the Zaporizhzhia region that is home to Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, whose reactors were shut down last month.

    Fighting near the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant has alarmed the U.N.’s atomic energy watchdog, which on Friday doubled to four the number of its inspectors monitoring plant safeguards. An accident there could release 10 times more potentially lethal radiation than the world’s worst nuclear disaster at Chernobyl in Ukraine 36 years ago, Ukrainian Environmental Protection Minister Ruslan Strilets said Friday.

    “The situation with the occupation, shelling, and mining of the Chernobyl and Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plants by Russian troops is causing consequences that will have a global character,” Strilets told The Associated Press.

    The U.N. watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, reported more trouble at the plant, saying Friday on Twitter that external power had again been cut off to one of Zaporizhzhia’s shutdown reactors, necessitating the use of emergency backup diesel generators to run safety systems.

    The city of Zaporizhzhia is located 53 kilometers (33 miles) away from the nuclear plant as a crow flies and remains under Ukrainian control. To cement Russia’s claim to the region, Russian forces bombarded the city with S-300 missiles on Thursday, with more attacks reported Friday.

    Ukrainian authorities said the death toll from the strikes on apartment buildings rose to 14 on Friday, while 12 people wounded in the bombardment remained hospitalized.

    Missiles also struck the city overnight, wounding one person, Zaporizhzhia Gov. Oleksandr Starukh said. Russia also used Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones there for the first time and damaged two infrastructure facilities, he said.

    With its army losing ground to a Ukrainian counteroffensive in the south and east, Russia has deployed unmanned, disposable Iranian-made drones that are cheaper and less sophisticated than missiles but still can damage ground targets.

    The Washington-based Institute for the Study of War said Russia’s use of the explosives-packed drones was unlikely to affect the course of the war.

    “They have used many drones against civilian targets in rear areas, likely hoping to generate nonlinear effects through terror. Such efforts are not succeeding,” analysts at the think tank wrote.

    In other Moscow-annexed areas, Russia’s Defense Ministry reported Friday that its forces had repelled Ukrainian advances near the city of Lyman and retaken three villages elsewhere in the eastern Donetsk region. The ministry also claimed that Russian forces had prevented Ukrainian troops from advancing on several villages in the southern Kherson region.

    Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address Friday that this week alone, his military has recaptured 776 square kilometers (300 square miles) of territory in the east and 29 settlements, including six in the Luhansk region, which Putin has annexed. In total, Ukrainian forces have liberated 2,434 square kilometers (940 square miles) of land and 96 settlements since the beginning of its counteroffensive, he said.

    In Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region, Russian troops shelled the city of Nikopol overnight, killing one person, wounding another and damaging buildings, natural gas pipelines and electricity systems, the governor reported. Nikopol lies along the Dnieper River across from Russian-held territory near the nuclear power plant. The city has been shelled frequently for weeks.

    The trail of Russia’s devastation and death from areas where its troops retreated became clearer Friday. A report by Ukrainian First Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Yevhen Yenin revealed that 530 bodies of civilians have been found in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region since Sept. 7.

    The residents killed during the Russian occupation included 257 men, 225 women and 19 children, with 29 people unidentified, Yenin said. Most of the bodies were found in a previously disclosed mass grave in the city of Izium.

    According to Yenin, the recovered bodies bore signs of gunshots, explosions and torture. Some people had ropes around their necks, hands tied behind their back, bullet wounds to their knees and broken ribs.

    Authorities have identified 22 torture sites in parts of the Kharkiv region that Ukrainian forces recently liberated, said Serhiy Bolvinov, a regional police official.

    In recently recaptured Lyman, workers found 200 individual graves and a mass grave with an unknown number of victims, Donetsk Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko reported on Telegram. In Sviatohirsk, 24 kilometers (15 miles) from Lyman, 21 bodies of civilians were reburied.

    Russian military equipment and weapons, meanwhile, is getting into Ukrainian hands. Britain’s Ministry of Defense said Friday that Ukrainian forces have captured at least 440 tanks and about 650 armored vehicles since the Russian invasion started Feb. 24.

    “The failure of Russian crews to destroy intact equipment before withdrawing or surrendering highlights their poor state of training and low levels of battle discipline,” the British ministry said. “With Russian formations under severe strain in several sectors and increasingly demoralized troops, Russia will likely continue to lose heavy weaponry.”

    Putin ordered a partial mobilization of Russian army reservists last month to reinforce manpower on the front lines in Ukraine. Mistakes have dogged the military call-up, however, and tens of thousands of men have fled Russia, unwilling to fight Putin’s war.

    That has left Russia desperate for troop reinforcements. The Ukrainian military said Friday that 500 former criminals have been mobilized to reinforce Russian ranks in the eastern Donetsk region, where Ukrainian forces have retaken territory. Law enforcement officers are commanding the new units, the military said.

    Russia’s state news agency Tass reported Friday that a court in the Russian city of Penza had dismissed the first case against a Russian man called up to serve but who refused. The 32-year-old man’s lawyers had argued that the law under which he was charged applies only to conscription evaders, not those subject to the partial mobilization.

    In another sign of trouble, reports have surfaced of poor training and few supplies for the new Russian troops. At least two Russian cities — St. Petersburg and Nizhny Novgorod — announced Friday they were canceling their Russian New Year’s and Christmas celebrations and redirecting that money to buy supplies for Russian troops.

    Under increasing pressure from his own supporters as well as critics, Putin continued to reshuffle his military’s leadership, replacing the commander of Russia’s eastern military district.

    ———

    Associated Press writer Hanna Arhirova in Ukraine contributed to this report.

    ———

    Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • EU leaders struggle to bridge gas price cap divide

    EU leaders struggle to bridge gas price cap divide

    [ad_1]

    PRAGUE — European Union leaders converged on Prague Castle on a crisp Friday morning to try to bridge significant differences over a natural gas price cap as winter approaches and Russia’s war on Ukraine fuels a major energy crisis.

    The price cap is one of several measures the 27-nation bloc is preparing to contain an energy crisis in Europe that is driving up prices for consumers and business and which could lead to rolling blackouts, shuttered factories and a deep recession over the winter.

    As the Europeans bolster their support for Ukraine in the form of weapons, money and aid, Russia has reduced or cut off natural gas to 13 member nations, leading to surging gas and electricity prices that could climb higher as demand peaks during the cold months.

    Standing in the way of an agreement is the simple fact that each member country depends on different energy sources and suppliers, and they’re struggling to see eye-to-eye on the best way ahead.

    A group of 15 member countries has urged the EU’s executive branch, the European Commission, to propose a cap on gas prices as soon as possible, but the idea has not secured unanimous support, with Germany notably blocking.

    For now, the commission says, Europe’s gas storage capacity stands at about 90%, even as Russian gas supplies to the EU declined by 37% between January and August, with the U.S. and Norway stepping in to provide liquefied natural gas. But those replacement supplies have not been cheap.

    “I therefore recommend stepping up negotiations with our reliable suppliers to reduce the prices of imported gas of all kinds,” commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a letter to the leaders ahead of Friday’s summit in the Czech capital.

    Von der Leyen also recommended that countries work together to “develop an intervention to limit prices in the natural gas market,” where prices have fluctuated wildly over jitters about the war and potentially uncoordinated national responses to the problem.

    For now, a breakthrough on the price cap seems a distant prospect, but the leaders may make enough progress to conclude some kind of agreement when they meet again in Brussels on Oct 20-21.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Live Updates: Russia-Ukraine War

    Live Updates: Russia-Ukraine War

    [ad_1]

    KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian forces have retaken 400 square kilometers (155 square miles) of territory in the southern Kherson region, so far this month as they continue to push Russian troops back in the south and east, Ukraine’s southern military command says.

    Natalia Humeniuk, spokesperson for the Ukrainian military’s Operational Command South, said in a briefing Thursday that the situation along the southern front was rapidly changing and remained complicated.

    Ukraine has recaptured 29 settlements in the oblast since Oct. 1, Oleksii Hromov, deputy chief of the Main Operational Department of the Ukrainian army’s General Staff, told a separate briefing.

    ———

    KEY DEVELOPMENTS:

    — EXPLAINER: Russia’s military woes mount amid Ukraine attacks

    — Russian rockets slam into Ukrainian city near nuclear plant

    — Experts: Russia finding new ways to spread propaganda videos

    — EU agrees on price cap for Russian oil over Ukraine war

    — Belarus opposition hopeful at Russian setbacks in Ukraine

    — Ukraine links World Cup host bid to beating horrors of war

    Follow all AP stories on the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine.

    ———

    BRUSSELS — The European Union on Thursday froze the assets of an additional 37 people and entities tied to Russia’s war in Ukraine, bringing the total of EU blacklist targets to 1,351.

    The newly sanctioned people include officials involved in last week’s illegal Russian annexation of — and sham referenda in — the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.

    The latest sanctions, published in the EU’s Official Journal, also widen trade bans against Russia and lay the ground for a price cap on Russian oil being prepared with other G-7 members. The new commercial curbs hit an estimated 7 billion euros ($6.9 billion) of EU imports of Russian goods including steel, plastics, textiles and non-gold jewelry.

    The wider EU prohibition on exports to Russia covers such products as coal, electronics used in Russian weapons and aircraft components.

    —-

    COPENHAGEN, Denmark – Norway on Thursday said that Russian fishing vessels can only call at three Arctic ports ports, and that all Russian vessels arriving at these ports will be checked.

    Russian fishing boats only will be allowed in three Arctic ports — Kirkenes, Tromsø and Båtsfjord.

    “We now have information which indicates that there is a need to increase the control of Russian fishing vessels, Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt said.

    “The recent serious developments with Russia’s unacceptable annexation of Ukraine, the attacks on gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea and increased drone activity, means that the government has further tightened preparedness.

    “This will make it more difficult to use Russian fishing vessels for illegal activities, for example by circumventing export regulations, ”Justice Minister Emilie Enger Mehl added.

    In April, the European Union, of which Norway is not a member, banned Russian vessels from entering EU ports. Norway followed suit with the exception of fishing boats, which led to criticism from the Norwegian opposition.

    Authorities in Norway, a major oil and gas producer, have reported several drone sightings near offshore installations in the North Sea.

    ———

    PRAGUE — Czech social media users have shared satirical tweets claiming that the Czech Republic has annexed the Russian territory of Kaliningrad and renamed it Královec.

    It is a satire on Russia’s illegal annexation of four Ukrainian territories where Kremlin-installed authorities held voter “referendums” that Ukraine and its allies regard as an illegitimate farce.

    Even Slovak President Zuzana Caputova got in on the joke on Thursday, tweeting “I might consider a state visit. Or not.” Turning serious, she added: “Well done our #Czech friends for de-masking the absurdity of #Russia’s fictitious referendums in #Ukraine.”

    An anonymous Twitter user in Poland first posted about the fake “annexation” of Kaliningrad. A Czech member of the European Parliament, Tomasz Zdechovsky, then posted about it. There has since been an explosion of jokes under the hashtags Kralovec and VisitKralovec.

    ———

    CANBERRA, Australia — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Thursday it was “hard to say” whether the risk of nuclear war had increased with his military’s territorial gains, but he remains confident his Russian counterpart would not survive such as escalation in hostilities.

    Zelenskyy was addressing the Lowy Institute international think tank in Sydney via video link after Ukraine’s military retook ground illegally annexed by Russia last week. He questioned whether Russian President Vladimir Putin had enough control over the Russian campaign to direct a tactical nuclear strike.

    The Russians found it “hard to control everything that is happening in their country, just as they’re not controlling everything they have on the battlefield,” Zelenskyy said.

    Putin “understands that after the use of nuclear weapons he would be unable any more to preserve, so to speak, his life,” Zelenskyy said, “and I’m confident of that.”

    ———

    WARSAW, Poland –- Poland is distributing potassium iodide tablets to regional firefighters’ stations in a pre-emptive measure in case of damage to Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which is occupied by Russian troops.

    Stored in some 1,500 stations nationwide, the potassium iodide pills would be distributed to Poles in case of real threat, the government said. Deputy interior and administration minister, Blazej Pobozy, has said radioactive contamination is “very unlikely.”

    The Zaporizhzhia plant, some 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) from Poland’s eastern border, is Europe’s largest. It was damaged recently in the fighting with Russian forces.

    In 1986, following the accident at Ukraine’s Chernobyl nuclear power plant many Poles took iodine solution to prevent absorbing radiation.

    ———

    WARSAW, Poland — Poland is raising its security emergency level for energy infrastructure located outside Poland’s borders.

    Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki signed the decision Thursday to raise security to the second out of four levels, through November. The decision means that security services need to be especially vigilant and ready to react to any potential terrorist threats.

    Poland recently opened a new natural gas pipeline from Norway, the Baltic Pipe, that partly runs on the Baltic seabed. It is helping Poland cut its decades-long dependence on Russian gas.

    Last week Russian’s Nord Stream pipelines suffered leaks in the Baltic Sea caused by explosions, widely believed to be the result of sabotage.

    ———

    KYIV, Ukraine — The U.S. deployed its international development chief to Ukraine on Thursday, the highest-ranking American official to visit the country since Russia illegally annexed the four regions.

    The head of the U.S. Agency for International Development, Samantha Power, traveled to Kyiv and was holding meetings with government officials and residents. She said the U.S. would provide an additional $55 million to repair heating pipes and other equipment.

    Among the sites she visited were a Kyiv neighborhood and school that had previously been hit by Russian missiles.

    USAID said the United States has delivered $9.89 billion in aid to Ukraine since February.

    A spending bill signed by President Biden last week promises another $12.3 billion in Ukraine-related aid — directed both at military and public services needs. Power said Washington plans to release the first $4.5 billion of that funding in the coming weeks.

    ———

    KYIV, Ukraine — The head of the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog is expected to visit Kyiv this week to discuss the situation at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, which has been occupied by Russian troops since the early part of the war.

    Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree Wednesday declaring that Russia was taking over the six-reactor plant, the largest in Europe.

    Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry called it a criminal act and said it considered Putin’s decree “null and void.” The state nuclear operator, Energoatom, said it would continue to operate the plant.

    Rafael Grossi, the director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, plans to talk with Ukrainian officials about the Russian move.

    He will also discuss efforts to set up a secure protection zone around the facility, which has been damaged in the fighting and seen staff including its director abducted by Russian troops.

    Grossi will travel to Moscow for talks with Russian officials after his stop in Kyiv.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Spain, Germany discuss energy crisis before EU summit

    Spain, Germany discuss energy crisis before EU summit

    [ad_1]

    MADRID — The leaders of Spain and Germany held talks in Spain Wednesday, two days before both participate in an European Union summit to discuss Europe’s energy crisis derived from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

    Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez hosted German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in the northwestern city of A Coruña. The two center-left leaders were accompanied by 15 ministers from their governments.

    The EU summit in Prague on Friday will likely include discussions on Germany’s plan to subsidize gas prices for its consumers and businesses, a move that has raised questions from France and Italy.

    Sánchez said that he “empathizes” with Germany due to its pressing need to find alternatives to Russian gas and oil, while adding that the EU should find common solutions. Both Sánchez and Scholz support reforming the EU’s energy market.

    “The consequences of the war in Ukraine impact us all, but clearly it has a greater impact on the countries with a higher dependency on Russian carbon-based fuels … so we empathize with the situation that Germany is in,” Sánchez said. “(And) Germany is Europe’s leading economy, so it is in all our interests that Germany does well.”

    Scholz, meanwhile, reiterated his support for Spain’s push to build another, larger pipeline with France that could pump natural gas, and potentially green hydrogen, northwards to the rest of Europe. That plan, however, has received zero support from French president Emmanuel Macron.

    Scholz said that they did not discuss Germany’s suggested European anti-missile defense shield as some local media had anticipated.

    On Thursday, leaders of over 40 EU and non-EU countries will meet in Prague to launch a “European Political Community” championed by Macron and aimed at boosting security and prosperity across the continent. The next day the leaders of the 27 EU members will gather to talk about energy and the war in Ukraine.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Ukraine nuclear workers recount abuse, threats from Russians

    Ukraine nuclear workers recount abuse, threats from Russians

    [ad_1]

    ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine — Alone in his apartment in the Russian-occupied city of Enerhodar in southeastern Ukraine, nuclear plant security guard Serhiy Shvets looked out his kitchen window in late May and saw gunmen approaching on the street below. When his buzzer rang, he was sure he was about to die.

    Shvets, a former soldier in Ukraine’s military who was loyal to Kyiv, knew the gunmen would either kill or abduct and torture him. He thought briefly about recording a farewell to his family, who had fled to safety abroad, but instead lit a cigarette and grabbed his gun.

    Six Russian soldiers broke down his door and opened fire, which he returned. Wounded in the hand, thigh, ear, and stomach, Shvets began to lose consciousness. Before he did, he heard the commander of the group tell his men to cease fire and call an ambulance.

    Shvets, who survived the shooting, is among workers from the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant recounting their fears of being abducted and tortured or killed by Russian forces occupying the facility and the city of Enerhodar. Ukrainian officials say the Russians have sought to intimidate the staff into keeping the plant running, through beatings and other abuse. but also to punish those who express support for Kyiv.

    A GOOD LIFE BEFORE THE WAR

    Life was good for employees of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant before the Russian invasion of Feb. 24. They were guaranteed a financially secure and stable life for their families.

    And even though Ukraine still bears the psychological scars of the world’s worst atomic accident at Chernobyl in 1986, the Zaporizhzhia plant — Europe’s largest nuclear facility with its six reactors — provided jobs for about 11,000 people, making Enerhodar and its prewar population of 53,000 one of the wealthiest cities in the region.

    But after Russia occupied the city early in the war, that once-comfortable life turned into nightmare.

    The invaders overran the ZNPP, about 6 kilometers (nearly 4 miles) from Enerhodar, but kept the Ukrainian staff in place to run it. Both sides accused the other of shelling the plant that damaged power lines connecting it to the grid, raising international alarm for its safety. Ukrainian officials say the Russians used the plant as a shield from which to fire shells on nearby towns.

    Reports of intimidation of the staff and abductions began trickling out over the summer. Rafael Mariano Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N.’s atomic watchdog, told The Associated Press about reports of violence between the Russians and the Ukrainian staff.

    About 4,000 ZNPP workers fled. Those who stayed cited threats of kidnap and torture — underscored by the abduction Friday of plant director Ihor Murashov, who was seized and blindfolded by Russian forces on his way home from work.

    He was freed Monday after being forced to make false statements on camera, according to Petro Kotin, head of Energoatom, Ukraine’s state nuclear company. Kotin told AP Murashov was released at the edge of Russian-controlled territory and walked about 15 kilometers (9 miles) to Ukrainian-held areas.

    “I would say it was mental torture,” Kotin said of what Murashov suffered. “He had to say that all the shelling on the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant was made by Ukrainian forces and that he is a Ukrainian spy … in contact with Ukrainian special forces.”

    Enerhodar’s exiled Mayor Dmytro Orlov, who spoke to Murashov after his release, said the plant official told him he had spent two days “in solitary confinement in the basement, with handcuffs and a bag on his head. His condition can hardly be called normal.”

    President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, described Murashov’s abduction as “yet another manifestation of absolutely uncovered Russian terror.”

    ‘TERRIBLE THINGS HAPPEN THERE’

    More than 1,000 people, including plant workers, were abducted from Enohodar, although some have been released, estimated Orlov, who fled to Zaporizhzhia, the nearest city under Ukrainian control, after refusing to cooperate with the Russians. Kotin estimated that 100-200 remain abducted.

    Orlov said the first abduction was March 19, when Russians seized his deputy, Ivan Samoidiuk, whose whereabouts remains unknown. The abductions then accelerated, he said.

    “Mostly, they took people with a pro-Ukrainian position, who were actively involved in the resistance movement,” he said.

    Orlov alleged they were tortured at various locations in Enerhodar, including at the city’s police station, in basements elsewhere and even in the ZNPP itself.

    “Terrible things happen there,” he said. “People who managed to come out say there was torture with electric currents, beatings, rape, shootings. … Some people didn’t survive.”

    Similar sites were seen by AP journalists in parts of the Kharkiv region abandoned by Russian troops after a Ukrainian counteroffensive. In the city of Izium, an AP investigation uncovered 10 separate torture sites.

    Plant worker Andriy Honcharuk died in a hospital July 3 shortly after the Russians released him, beaten and unconscious, for refusing to follow their orders at the facility, Orlov said.

    Oleksii, a worker who said he was responsible for controlling the plant’s turbines and reactor compartment, fled Enerhodar in June when he learned Russian troops were looking for him. The 39-year-old asked not to be identified by his full name for fear of reprisal.

    “It was psychologically difficult,” Oleksii told the AP in Kyiv. “You go to the station and see the occupiers there. You come to your workplace already depressed.”

    Many plant employees “visited the basements” and were tortured there, he said.

    “Graves appeared in the forest that surrounds the city. That is, everyone understands that something horrible is happening,” he said. “They abduct people for their pro-Ukrainian position, or if they find any Telegram groups on their phone. This is enough for them to take a person away.”

    Another employee who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of his safety said he was unafraid of working at the plant amid shelling but decided to flee in September after colleagues were seized. He said Russians visited his home twice while he was away, and the possibility of torture was too much for him.

    The plant’s last reactor was shut down in September to guard against a disaster from constant shelling that cut reliable external power supplies needed for cooling and other safety systems. Kotin said the company could restart two of the reactors in a matter of days to protect safety installations as winter approaches and temperatures drop.

    But the power plant sits in one of four regions that Russia has moved to annex, making its future uncertain.

    Kotin on Tuesday renewed his call for a “demilitarized zone” around the plant, where two IAEA experts are based.

    ‘FREEDOM OR DEATH’

    For Serhiy Shvets, whose apartment was raided May 23, it was only a matter of time before the Russians came for him during the occupation of Enerhodar, he said. He had signed up to serve in Ukraine’s territorial defense forces shortly after the invasion and had sent his wife and other relatives abroad for safety.

    He said the Russian forces who shot him called the ambulance “so I could die in the hospital.”

    Doctors initially gave him a 5% chance of survival after he lost nearly two-thirds of his blood. But following several operations, he was well enough to leave Enerhodar in July and is living in Zaporizhzhia.

    Shvets, whose right hand is in a metal brace, quietly exhaled from pain as he moved it and said the only thing he regrets now is that he is too disabled to fight.

    “I’m a descendant from Zaporozhian Cossacks,” he said, referring to his ancestors who lived on the territory of Ukraine from the 15th to 18th centuries and defended it from invaders. “There was no such thing as surrender for them — just freedom or death.”

    He added: “Why would I want such a life if I don’t have my freedom?”

    ———

    Yuras Karmanau in Tallinn, Estonia, contributed.

    ———

    Follow AP’s coverate of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • German energy company RWE to end coal use by 2030

    German energy company RWE to end coal use by 2030

    [ad_1]

    BERLIN — German energy company RWE said Tuesday that it will phase out the burning of coal by 2030, saving 280 million metric tons of climate-changing greenhouse gas emissions.

    The decision will accelerate the closure of some of Europe’s most polluting power plants and a vast lignite strip mine in western Germany.

    It will also prevent the eviction of residents of several villages and farms west of Cologne near the Garzweiler mine. The exception is Luetzerath, a hamlet that has been the focus of protests by environmentalists and which will now need to be cleared to extract more coal in the short-term.

    The government argues this is necessary to ensure energy security amid the fallout of Russia’s attack on Ukraine.

    RWE’s announcement boosts the German government’s efforts to bring forward the deadline for phasing out coal use by eight years as part of the country’s goal of ending its greenhouse gas emissions by 2045.

    Economy Minister Robert Habeck, who is responsible for energy, said negotiations with the operators of Germany’s other coal mines and eight coal-fired power plants were ongoing.

    The Fridays for Future climate activist group said the announcement that Luetzerath will be destroyed and some coal-fired plants will temporarily be kept online for longer to cover possible energy shortfalls was “cynical.” It said protests against the plan would be organized in several locations across Germany.

    In parallel to its phaseout of coal, RWE said it would expand renewable energy production and build gas-fired power plants capable of burning hydrogen.

    RWE, which over the weekend announced the purchase of American company Con Edison Clean Energy Businesses, said it is now on a path that is compatible with the 2015 Paris climate accord’s goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit).

    Separately on Tuesday, the Netherlands said it plans to join a German-led initiative to promote the market ramp-up of hydrogen produced using renewable energy.

    German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said the two countries will also explore cooperation on future offshore wind parks in the North Sea that would produce both electricity and “green hydrogen.”

    ———

    Follow AP’s coverage of climate and environment issues at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Russia accused of ‘kidnapping’ head of Ukraine nuclear plant

    Russia accused of ‘kidnapping’ head of Ukraine nuclear plant

    [ad_1]

    KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s nuclear power provider accused Russia on Saturday of “kidnapping” the head of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, a facility now occupied by Russian troops and located in a region of Ukraine that Russian President Vladimir Putin has moved to annex illegally.

    Russian forces seized the director-general of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, Ihor Murashov, around 4 p.m. Friday, Ukrainian state nuclear company Energoatom said. That was just hours after Putin, in a sharp escalation of his war, signed treaties to absorb Moscow-controlled Ukrainian territory into Russia.

    Energoatom said Russian troops stopped Murashov’s car, blindfolded him and then took him to an undisclosed location.

    “His detention by (Russia) jeopardizes the safety of Ukraine and Europe’s largest nuclear power plant,” said Energoatom President Petro Kotin said.

    Kotin demanded that Russia immediately release Murashov.

    Russia did not immediately acknowledge seizing the plant director. The International Atomic Energy Agency, which has staff at the plant, did not immediately acknowledge Energoatom’s claim of Murashov’s capture.

    The Zaporizhzhia plant repeatedly has been caught in the crossfire of the war in Ukraine. Ukrainian technicians continued running it after Russian troops seized the power station. The plant’s last reactor was shut down in September amid ongoing shelling near the facility.

    On Friday, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the war in Ukraine was at “a pivotal moment.” He called Putin’s decision to take over more territory – Russia now claims sovereignty over 15% of Ukraine – “the largest attempted annexation of European territory by force since the Second World War.”

    Elsewhere in Ukraine, however, a Ukrainian counteroffensive that last month embarrassed the Kremlin by liberating a region bordering Russia was on the verge of retaking more ground, according to military analysts.

    The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, said Ukraine likely will retake another key Russian-occupied city in the country’s east in the next few days. Ukrainian forces already have encircled the city of Lyman, some 160 kilometers (100 miles) southeast of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city.

    Citing Russian reports, the institute said it appeared Russian forces were retreating from Lyman. That corresponds to online videos purportedly showing some Russian forces falling back as a Ukrainian soldier said they had reached Lyman’s outskirts.

    The Ukrainian military has yet to claim taking Lyman, and Russia-backed forces claimed they were sending more troops to the area.

    Ukraine also is making “incremental” gains around Kupiansk and the eastern bank of the Oskil River, which became a key front line since the Ukrainian counteroffensive regained control of the Kharkiv region in September.

    Ukraine’s military claimed Saturday that Russia would need to deploy cadets before they complete their training because of a lack of manpower in the war. Putin ordered a mass mobilization of Russian army reservists last week to supplement his troops in Ukraine, and thousands of men have fled the country to avoid the call-up.

    The Ukrainian military’s general staff said cadets at the Tyumen Military School and at the Ryazan Airborne School would be sent to participate in Russia’s mobilization. It offered no details on how it gathered the information, though Kyiv has electronically intercepted mobile phone calls from Russian soldiers amid the conflict.

    In a daily intelligence briefing, the British Defense Ministry highlighted an attack Friday in the city of Zaporizhzhia that killed 30 people and wounded 88 others.

    The British military said the Russians “almost certainly” struck a humanitarian convoy there with S-300 anti-aircraft missiles. Russia is increasingly using anti-aircraft missiles to conduct attacks on the ground likely due to a lack of munitions, the British said Saturday.

    “Russia’s stock of such missiles is highly likely limited and is a high-value resource designed to shoot down modern aircraft and incoming missiles, rather than for use against ground targets,” the British said. “Its use in ground attack role has almost certainly been driven by overall munitions shortages, particularly longer-range precision missiles.”

    The British briefing noted the attack came while Putin was preparing to sign the annexation treaties.

    “Russia is expending strategically valuable military assets in attempts to achieve tactical advantage and in the process is killing civilians it now claims are its own citizens,” it said.

    ———

    Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Wall Street drifts near 2022 low as dismal week, month close

    Wall Street drifts near 2022 low as dismal week, month close

    [ad_1]

    NEW YORK — Wall Street is drifting around its worst levels in almost two years Friday as the end nears for what’s been a miserable month for markets around the world.

    The S&P 500 was virtually unchanged in midday trading after flipping between small losses and gains through the morning. It’s hovering around its lowest level since November 2020, and it’s on pace to close out its sixth weekly loss in the last seven, one of its worst months since the early 2020 coronavirus crash and its third straight losing quarter.

    The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 95 points, or 0.3%, at 29,130, as of noon Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.4% higher.

    The main reason for this year’s struggles for financial markets has been fear about a possible recession, as interest rates soar in hopes of beating down the high inflation that’s swept the world.

    The Federal Reserve has been at the forefront of the global campaign to slow economic growth and hurt job markets just enough to undercut inflation but not so much that it causes a recession. More data arrived Friday to suggest the Fed will keep its foot firmly on the brakes on the economy, raising the risk of its going too far and causing a downturn.

    The Fed’s preferred measure of inflation showed prices rising even faster than economists expected last month, while spending by consumers rebounded. That should keep the Fed on track to keep raising rates and hold them at high levels a while, as it’s loudly and repeatedly promised to do.

    Vice Chair Lael Brainard was the latest Fed official on Friday to insist it won’t pull back on rates prematurely. That helped to keep snuffed out hopes on Wall Street for a “pivot” toward easier rates as the economy slows.

    “At this point, it’s not a matter of if we’ll have a recession, but what type of recession it will be,” said Sean Sun, portfolio manager at Thornburg Investment Management.

    Higher interest rates knock down one of the main levers that set prices for stocks. The other also looks to be under threat as the slowing economy, high interest rates and other factors weigh on corporate profits.

    Nike slumped 11.8% in what could be its worst day in two decades after it said its profitability weakened during the summer because of discounts needed to clear suddenly overstuffed warehouses. The amount of shoes and gear in Nike’s inventories swelled by 44% from a year earlier. This year’s powerful surge for the U.S. dollar against other currencies also hurt the company. Its worldwide revenue rose only 4%, instead of the 10% it would have if currency values had remained the same.

    Nike isn’t the only company to see its inventories balloon. So have several big-name retailers, and such bad news for businesses could actually mean some relief for shoppers if it leads to more discounts. It echoed some glimmers of encouragement buried within Friday’s report on the Fed’s preferred gauge of inflation. That showed some slowing of inflation for goods, even as price gains kept accelerating for services.

    Another report on Friday also offered a glimmer of hope. A measure of consumer sentiment showed U.S. expectations for future inflation came down in September. That’s key for the Fed because expectations for higher inflation among households can create a debilitiating, self-reinforcing cycle that worsens it.

    Treasury yields eased a bit on Friday, letting off some of the pressure that’s built on markets.

    The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 3.73% from 3.79% late Thursday. The two-year yield, which more closely tracks expectations for Fed action, sank to 4.13% from 4.19%.

    Still, a long list of other worries continues to hang over global markets, including increasing tensions between much of Europe and Russia following the invasion of Ukraine. A controversial plan to cut taxes by the U.K. government also sent bond markets spinning on fears it could make inflation even worse. Bond markets calmed a bit after the Bank of England pledged mid-week to buy however many U.K. government bonds are needed to bring yields back down.

    The stunning and swift rise of the U.S. dollar against other currencies, meanwhile, raises the risk of creating so much stress that something cracks somwhere in global markets.

    Stocks around the world were mixed after a report showed that inflation in the 19 countries that use Europe’s euro currency spiked to a record and data from China said that factory activity weakened there.

    ——

    AP Business Writers Joe McDonald and Matt Ott contributed.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Small protests appear in Havana over islandwide blackout

    Small protests appear in Havana over islandwide blackout

    [ad_1]

    HAVANA — The power outage caused by Hurricane Ian has prompted protests in the streets of Cuba‘s capital as several hundred people demanded restoration of electricity more than two days after a blackout hit the entire island,

    An Associated Press journalist saw about 400 people gathered Thursday night in at least two spots in the Cerro neighborhood shouting, “We want light, we want light,” and banging pots and pans.

    It appeared to be the first public display over the electricity problems that spread from western Cuba, where Ian hit, to the entire island, leaving the country’s 11 million people in the dark. The storm also left three people dead and caused still unquantified damage.

    Power was restored to much of the island within a day after the storm’s blast.

    Internet service was interrupted Thursday, but there were signs it had returned by Friday morning, at least in some areas.

    On Thursday, groups that monitor internet access reported a “near-total internet blackout in Cuba.” Alp Toker, director of London-based Netblockssaid that what his group saw was different than what happened right after the hurricane hit the island.

    “We believe the incident is likely to significantly impact the free flow of information amid protests,” he said.

    Doug Madory, director of internet analysis at Kentik Inc., a network intelligence company, describes it as a “total internet blackout” that started at 00:30 GMT.

    At a protest on Calzada del Cerro, protesters surrounded a work team trying to repair a pole and a light transformer.

    Protesters were still in the streets late into the night, but the gatherings remained peaceful.

    Repeated blackouts on the already fragile grid were among the causes of Cuba’s largest social protests in decades in July 2021. Thousands of people, weary of power failures and shortages of goods exacerbated by the pandemic and U.S. sanctions, turned out in cities across the island to vent their anger and some also lashed out at the government. Hundreds were arrested and prosecuted, prompting harsh criticism of the administration of President Miguel Diaz-Canel.

    Cubans on Thursday complained that the outages forced them to throw out refrigerated meat and other goods that is costly or hard to find.

    The government has not said what percentage of the overall population remained without electricity as of early Friday, but electrical authorities said only 10% of Havana’s 2 million people had power Thursday.

    Experts said the total blackout showed the vulnerability of Cuba’s power grid and warned that it will require time and sources — things the country doesn’t have — to fix the problem.

    Authorities have promised to work without rest to address the issue.

    Calls by AP to a dozen people in Cuba’s main cities — Holguín, Guantánamo, Matanzas, Ciego de Ávila, Camagüey and Santiago — found problems similar to those in Havana, with most reporting their neighborhoods were still without electricity.

    Authorities say the total blackout happened because of a failure in the connections between Cuba’s three regions — west, center and east — caused by Ian’s winds.

    Cuba’s power grid “was already in a critical and immunocompromised state as a result of the deterioration of the thermoelectric plants. The patient is now on life support,” said Jorge Piñon, director of the Center for International Energy and Environmental Policy’s Latin America and Caribbean program at the University of Texas.

    Cuba has 13 power generation plants, eight of which are traditional thermoelectric plants, and five floating power plants rented from Turkey since 2019. There is also a group of small plants distributed throughout the country since an energy reform in 2006.

    But the plants are poorly maintained, a phenomenon the government attributed to the lack of funds and U.S. sanctions. Complications in obtaining fuel is also a problem.

    ———

    Andrea Rodríguez on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ARodriguezAP

    ———

    Associated Press writer E. Eduardo Castillo contributed to this report from Mexico City.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Ex-PG&E execs to pay $117M to settle lawsuit over wildfires

    Ex-PG&E execs to pay $117M to settle lawsuit over wildfires

    [ad_1]

    OAKLAND, Calif. — Former executives and directors of Pacific Gas & Electric have agreed to pay $117 million to settle a lawsuit over devastating 2017 and 2018 California wildfires sparked by the utility’s equipment, it was announced Thursday.

    The settlement was announced by the PG&E Fire Victim Trust, which was established to handle claims filed by more than 80,000 victims of deadly wildfires ignited by PG&E’s rickety electrical grid. The trust’s lawsuit, filed last year, alleged that former officers and board members neglected their duty to ensure the utility’s equipment wouldn’t kill people.

    The complaint was an offshoot of a $13.5 billion settlement that PG&E reached with the wildfire victims while the utility was mired in bankruptcy from January 2019 through June 2020.

    As part of that deal, PG&E granted the victims the right to go after the utility’s hierarchy leading up to and during a series of wind-driven wildfires that killed more than 100 people and destroyed more than 25,000 homes and businesses, including the 2018 Camp Fire, which killed 85 people and destroyed much of the town of Paradise in Butte County.

    PG&E pleaded guilty to 84 felony counts of involuntary manslaughter for causing the fire and was fined $4 million, the maximum penalty allowed.

    All told, PG&E has been blamed for more than 30 wildfires since 2017 that wiped out more than 23,000 homes and businesses and killed more than 100 people.

    Those sued by the fire trust included two of PG&E’s former chief executives, Anthony Earley and Geisha Williams, who were paid millions of dollars during their terms, and former board members. They were covered by liability insurance secured by the utility, the trust has said.

    PG&E is the nation’s largest utility, with an estimated 16 million customers in central and Northern California.

    In a statement, PG&E said the settlement is “another step forward in PG&E’s ongoing effort to resolve issues outstanding from before its bankruptcy and to move forward focused on our commitments to deliver safe, clean and reliable energy to our customers, and to continue the important work of reducing risk across our energy system.”

    The settlement money won’t go to fire victims. Instead, under a bankruptcy court order, the money will be used to satisfy “the vast majority” of claims made by federal agencies, such as the U.S. Forest Service, that helped fight the blazes and assist the victims, said a statement from Frank M. Pitre, lead attorney for the trust.

    That means the money won’t have to come out of funds earmarked for the trust, which has paid out $4.9 billion to victims.

    The trust has said it faces a huge shortfall because half of the promised settlement consisted of PG&E stock that has consistently traded at less than what was hoped for when the deal was struck toward the end of 2019.

    The stock closed Thursday at $12.38 a share on the New York Stock Exchange, down more than 30 cents.

    Would-be investors might be spooked by PG&E’s continuing wildfire woes. In June, the company pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter and other charges it faces after its equipment sparked the Zogg Fire, which killed four people and destroyed hundreds of homes in Northern California two years ago.

    Also earlier this year, PG&E agreed to pay more than $55 million to avoid criminal prosecution for two other major wildfires sparked by its aging Northern California power lines. But the company didn’t acknowledge wrongdoing in those cases.

    And last week, federal investigators seized a utility transmission pole and attached equipment in a criminal probe into what started the Mosquito Fire in the Sierra Nevada foothills.

    The fire that broke out on Sept. 6 destroyed nearly 80 homes and other buildings. The fire, which has burned nearly 120 square miles (311 square kilometers), was 85% contained Thursday.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Baltic Sea pipeline leak damages marine life and climate

    Baltic Sea pipeline leak damages marine life and climate

    [ad_1]

    WASHINGTON — Methane escaping from the damaged Nord Stream pipelines that run between Russia and Europe is likely to result in the biggest known gas leak to take place over a short period of time and highlights the problem of large methane escapes elsewhere around the world, scientists say.

    There is still uncertainty in estimating total damage, but researchers say vast plumes of this potent greenhouse gas will have significant detrimental impacts on the climate.

    Immediate harm to marine life and fisheries in the Baltic Sea and to human health will also result because benzene and other trace chemicals are typically present in natural gas, researchers say.

    “This will probably be the biggest gas leak ever, in terms of its rate,” said Stanford University climate scientist Rob Jackson.

    The velocity of the gas erupting from four documented leaks in the pipelines — which the North Atlantic Treaty Organization has attributed to sabotage — is part of what makes the impacts severe.

    When methane leaks naturally leaks from vents on the ocean floor, the quantities are usually small and the gas is mostly absorbed by seawater. “But this is not a normal situation for gas release,” said Jackson. “We’re not talking about methane bubbling up to the surface like seltzer water, but a plume of rushing gas,” he said.

    Jackson and other scientists estimate that between 50% and nearly 100% of total methane emitted from the pipeline will reach the atmosphere.

    The Danish government issued a worst case scenario that assumed all the gas reached the air, and German officials Thursday issued a somewhat lower one.

    In the meantime, it’s nearly impossible for anyone to approach the highly flammable plume to attempt to curb the release of gas, which energy experts estimate may continue until Sunday.

    “Methane is very flammable — if you go in there, you’d have a good chance of it being a funeral pyre,” said Ira Leifer, an atmospheric scientist. If the gas-air mix was within a certain range, an airplane could easily ignite travelling into the plume, for example.

    Methane isn’t the only risk. “Natural gas isn’t refined to be super clean — there are trace elements of other compounds, like benzene,” a carcinogen, said Leifer.

    “The amount of these trace elements cumulatively entering the environment is significant right now — this will cause issues for fisheries and marine ecosystems and people who potentially eat those fish,” he said.

    David Archer, a professor in the geophysical sciences department at University of Chicago who focuses on the global carbon cycle, said that escape of methane in the Baltic Sea is part of the much larger worldwide problem of methane emissions.

    The gas is a major contributor to climate change, responsible for a significant share of the climate disruption people are already experiencing. That is because it is 82.5 times more potent than carbon dioxide at absorbing the sun’s heat and warming the Earth, over the short term.

    Climate scientist have found that methane emissions from the oil and gas industry are far worse than what companies are reporting, despite claims by major companies that they’ve reduced their emissions.

    Scientists measuring methane from satellites in space have found that emissions from oil and gas operations are usually at least twice as high as what the companies reported, said Thomas Lauvaux, climate scientist at University of Reims in France.

    Many of those so-called leaks are not accidental. Companies release the gas during routine maintenance. Lauvaux and other scientists observed more than 1,500 major methane leaks globally, and potentially tens of thousands of smaller leaks, using satellites, he said.

    —

    AP reporters Patrick Whittle contributed from Portland, Maine, Seth Borenstein from Washington, DC., and Cathy Bussewitz from New York.

    ——

    Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Bulgaria to hold election overshadowed by war in Ukraine

    Bulgaria to hold election overshadowed by war in Ukraine

    [ad_1]

    SOFIA, Bulgaria — Bulgarians will go to the polls for the fourth time in less than two years in a general election overshadowed this time by the war in Ukraine, rising energy costs and galloping inflation.

    Pollsters expect that voters’ fatigue and disillusionment with the political system will result in low turnout and a fragmented parliament where populist and pro-Russia groups could increase their representation.

    The early election comes after a coalition led by pro-Western Prime Minister Kiril Petkov lost a no-confidence vote in June. He claimed that Moscow used “hybrid war” tactics to bring down his government after it refused to pay gas bills in rubles and ordered the expulsion of 70 Russian diplomatic staff from Bulgaria.

    The latest opinion polls suggest that up to seven parties could pass the 4% threshold to enter parliament in a contested vote on Sunday.

    Despite a decrease in support for the GERB party of ex-Prime Minister Boyko Borissov in previous elections, it is tipped now to finish first. Analysts explain that the shift is likely because of voters’ reluctance to accept change in times of crises and a preference to chose a party they are familiar with.

    Parvan Simeonov, a Sofia-based political analyst for Gallup International, said that the war in Ukraine has a strong influence on this election.

    “While at previous polls the division was for and against the model of governance of the last 10 years personified by GERB and Boyko Borissov, the main issues now are stabilization, keeping prices low and dealing with the consequences of the war,” Simeonov told The Associated Press.

    “The main division in the country now is between East and West on the political map, rather than between status quo and change,” he added.

    Still, the predicted percentage won’t be enough for Borissov’s party to form a one-party government, and the chances for a GERB-led coalition are slim as it is blamed for corruption by almost all other opponents.

    A recent Gallup International survey ranked GERB first with 25.9%, followed by its main rival — Petkov’s We Continue the Change party with 19.2%.

    Borissov, addressing party activists at the last campaign event in Sofia, was positive that GERB would score a convincing victory.

    “That’s the only solution for Bulgaria. We have the rare chance to have a stable government,” said the 63-year-old ex-premier, who is vying for a fourth term in office.

    His main rival, Kiril Petkov, is also confident that Sunday’s vote will yield positive results for his party.

    “I certainly expect us to be the first political power. The goal is to have a majority in the next parliament together with the other two parties — Democratic Bulgaria and the Socialist Party,” he told the AP.

    The war in Ukraine was among the main topics in the campaign and calls by the leader of the pro-Russia party Vazrazhdane, Kostadin Kostadinov, for “full neutrality” of Bulgaria in this war are attracting many voters as latest opinion polls predict that the group would gain 11.3% of the votes, up from 4.9% at the previous election.

    Deep conflicts between the main parties make it almost impossible to form a viable coalition government, which would prolong the political impasse and add more economic woes in the poorest European Union member country.

    Simeonov sees a possible solution in forming a Cabinet of experts with a limited term.

    “The other possible option would be no government and go to new elections,” he said.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • 4th leak reported on Nord Stream pipelines in Baltic Sea

    4th leak reported on Nord Stream pipelines in Baltic Sea

    [ad_1]

    This satellite photo from Planet Labs PBC shows a large disturbance in the sea can be observed off the coast of the Danish island of Bornholm, Monday Sept. 26, 2022 following a series of unusual leaks on two natural gas pipelines running from Russia under the Baltic Sea to Germany have triggered concerns about possible sabotage. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen says she “cannot rule out” sabotage after three leaks were detected on Nord Stream 1 and 2. (Planet Labs PBC via AP)

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Live Updates: Russia-Ukraine War

    Live Updates: Russia-Ukraine War

    [ad_1]

    KYIV, Ukraine — STOCKHOLM — A fourth leak to the Nord Stream pipelines conveying natural gas from Russia to Germany has been reported off southern Sweden.

    Earlier, three leaks had been reported on the two underwater pipelines. Seismologists detected two explosions were detected before reports of the leaks which officials believe were “deliberate actions.”

    Some experts have said Russia is likely to blame for any sabotage — it directly benefits from higher energy prices and economic anxiety across Europe.

    Sweden’s coast guards told Swedish news agency TT on Thursday that the fourth leak was off Sweden. All the leaks are in international waters.

    ———

    KEY DEVELOPMENTS:

    — Russia poised to annex occupied Ukrain e after sham vote

    — US: Focus new Russia sanctions on oil revenue, arms supplies

    — Europe ramps up energy security after suspected sabotage

    — Moscow tries to draft fleeing Russian men at the borders

    ———

    OTHER DEVELOPMENTS:

    KYIV — Authorities say Russian missile fire targeted the eastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro overnight, killing at least three people and wounded five others.

    Valentyn Reznichenko, the governor of the wider Dnipropetrovsk region, said fire damaged homes, a market, cars, buses and electrical lines.

    ——

    KYIV — Authorities say the hometown of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has again been targeted by Russian missile fire.

    Ukrainian military officials said Thursday a Russian Kh-59 missile struck Kryvyi Rih on Wednesday night. The Russian fire struck a grain depot while others were shot down.

    Kryvyi Rih is some 350 kilometers (215 miles) southeast of Kyiv.

    ——

    KYIV — The Ukrainian military says it is sending undertrained fighters to the battle front as it tries to reinforce its positions in the eastern Ukrainian city of Lyman.

    The Ukrainian military’s general staff said Thursday that of seven Russian tanks sent to Lyman recently, Russian troops crashed two of them on the way there.

    It also said troops manning the tanks did not undergo training on how to use the vehicle’s weapons.

    The Ukrainian military did not elaborate on how it knew about the tank unit’s condition. But Ukraine’s intelligence services have played purportedly intercepted phone calls of Russian troops complaining about their conditions on the front line.

    ——

    KYIV — Britain’s military says the number of Russian military-age men fleeing the country likely exceeds the number of forces Moscow used to initially invade Ukraine in February.

    The British Defense Ministry made the estimate in its daily intelligence briefing Thursday amid a Russian push to mobilize more troops to replenish losses its forces have suffered in Ukraine.

    The ministry said those who are financially better off and better educated are over-represented amongst those attempting to leave Russia.

    It added that the economic impact from the call-up as a result of a loss of labor in combination with a ‘brain drain’ “is likely to become increasingly difficult.”

    ——

    KYIV — A Washington-based think tank says Ukrainian soldiers continue to advance around a key northeastern city occupied by Russian forces and may soon encircle it entirely.

    The Institute for the Study of War, citing Russian reports, said Thursday that Ukrainian forces have taken more villages around Lyman, a city some 160 kilometers (100 miles) southeast of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city.

    Lyman had been a key node in Russia’s front-line operations in the region before Ukrainian forces retook vast swathes of territory in the northeast earlier this month.

    The institute said a possible collapse of the Lyman pocket would allow Ukrainian troops to “threaten Russian positions along the western Luhansk” region.

    The institute suggested additional Russian losses would further erode morale amid a call-up of hundreds of thousands of men — the country’s first since World War II.

    — Follow the AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

    [ad_2]

    Source link